Coal India Ltd.

In a move to ramp up its supply, world’s largest coal miner, Coal India (CIL) is bracing up to fund construction of a large rail network connecting the country’s coalfields and will be floating a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) that would lay a 180-km line for evacuating coal from currently blocked in Chhattisgarh.

To cover its investment, in yet another first for the miner, the company is planning to levy a user charge, thereby marking its entry into haulage business. This move is part of a bigger plan being implemented under the PMO’s watch to set up three rail lines, running 300-km across three naxal-affected but coal-rich states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand.

Further towards this development, the coal mammoth would hold 64 per cent stake in the SPV, while the remaining stake would be shared between Ircon, a company under the rail ministry, and the Chhattisgarh government. This also implies that the company would be funding 64 per cent, or Rs 2,880 crore, of the Rs 4,500-crore cost for building the double-line broad-gauge Bhupdeopur-Korba-Dharamjai rail corridor.